This year's Morris Fromkin Memorial Lecture focuses on the racial geography of Milwaukee - and the role racial housing covenants have played in defining ongoing racial boundaries in our city. But it is also a story of resistance. According to speakers Anne Bonds and Derek Handley, "Our focus on efforts to challenge covenants explores the lived experiences of covenants and ways in which Black organizations and residents of Milwaukee County envisioned and articulated their claims for racial and spatial justice."
Racially restrictive real estate covenants
Property deeds and real estate covenants govern restrictions on the use of property. During the early to mid-twentieth century, these documents were often used to prevent people who were not white from buying property in certain areas.1
The covenants pictured here are from the Lloyd Barbee Papers in the UWM Archives, and provide evidence of racially restrictive clauses in covenants for several Milwaukee suburbs. For example, the covenant for Fox Point Gardens, dated June 1940, restricts occupancy to white people, but makes an exception for "domestic servants domiciled with an owner or tenant." Such a clause not only restricts ownership, but assigns an "acceptable" role for non-whites who enter the neighborhood.
This 1927 covenant - with amendments added in 1945 - includes similar language for the Hauser Homes subdivision in Milwaukee County. Language in the covenants states that restrictions outlined here "shall be in force and effect until the first day of January 1977."
This 1929 covenant from the Armory Subdivision in Shorewood restricts any activity to persons of "the white race." These sorts of restrictions were legal in Wisconsin until 1948, when the Supreme Court struck down racially restrictive housing covenants as unenforceable.2 But more remained to be done to address unequal housing.
Redlining
This 1938 map of Milwaukee was created by Home Owners' Loan Corporation (HOLC) - a federal agency created as part of the New Deal to help stabilize the home mortgage market. But it also introduced the concept of redlining. The HOLC created residential security maps that designated neighborhoods according to different grades meant to signify investment and security risk. Neighborhoods that received the lowest grade were shaded in red, or "redlined." These grades effectively outlined the racial contours of the city and systematically embedded economic disadvantages by making it difficult or impossible to secure home loans in areas deemed risky.3
The blue and green sections are designated first and second - or higher grade. Yellow and red are areas deemed lower grade and risky for investment. Downer College - what is now UWM - can be seen in a blue section of the map.
Resistance
The UWM Libraries March on Milwaukee digital collection documents resistance to unfair housing policies. In particular in the 1960s, and with specific actions - including a 200-night march - community members waged protests, boycotts, and legislative battles against segregation and discriminatory practices in housing, as well as in schools and social clubs.
Vel Phillips worked especially through legislative means to pass a fair housing ordinance. But she also marched with the NAACP Youth Council. In 1962, she introduced the Phillips Housing Ordinance–a bill that outlawed housing discrimination–to her peers in the Common Council. The bill, however, was defeated 18-1 with only her vote in favor. Between the years of 1963 and 1967, Phillips would reintroduce the fair housing bill three additional times, only to have it defeated each time. That year - 1967 - the NAACP Youth Council organized the 200-nights of freedom marches to protest the unfair housing policies that prevented Black people from buying homes and securing mortgages in many areas of the city and Milwaukee suburbs.4
On August 28, 1967 at least 200 NAACP Youth Council members marched across the 16th Street Bridge to the Kosciuszko Park on the city's south side. A violent crowd met them there, throwing rocks and bottles and displaying hateful signs. This action was the first of 200 nights of marches.
In 1968, the Civil Rights Act (under Title VIII) banned racially restrictive housing covenants and other forms of housing discrimination.5 But the damage done remains, reflected in the persistence of segregation and unequal resources in Milwaukee and other cities. Please join us on Thursday at 4:00 p.m. on the 4th floor of the Golda Meir Library (or virtually) to learn more about this history of both racism and resistance in Milwaukee.